It turned out that Zhang Shi had left his shadow behind the first time he used the Shadow Step, intending to deliver a fatal blow at this moment. However, he hadn't expected the bearded man to have such a trump card; despite Zhang Shi's elaborate plan, he still couldn't kill him.
The bearded man distanced himself, then waved his hand, causing a golden compass to spin rapidly and appear in mid-air. Several thick fire dragons shot out from the compass, dividing the battlefield.
"All retreat!"
At the bearded man's command, the unruly Eagle Gang members immediately abandoned their attack and turned to retreat towards the compass. Directly below the compass, a blurry portal had already appeared.
Zhang Shi tried to stop them, but another cage of flames rose beneath his feet, encircling him completely. He gritted his teeth, trying to force his way through the flames, but the Eagle Legion's arrows and muskets slowed him down, creating distance between them. Without a target for his Shadow Step, Zhang Shi could only watch helplessly as they departed.
"They probably recognized you. Go back first to avoid unnecessary trouble."
Ge Dalong stepped forward and pointed at Lao Duan, offering his suggestion.
Zhang Shi nodded and gave the order to retreat.
Perhaps because they had defeated the boss, the group encountered no obstacles and left the secret realm without incident.
After returning to the transit station, Zhang Shi left a full 50 soldiers to guard the teleportation array. The Eagle Regiment had already infiltrated the vicinity, so it was good to be cautious.
As night fell and a torrential downpour began, everything was normal inside the shelter. The soldiers methodically wrapped up their work for the day, and everything proceeded in perfect order.
Upon their return, Zhang Shi and the others went straight to the research center, found Gong Yi, retrieved the [Waste Utilization] skill card from the purple orb, and handed him a large pile of design blueprints.
"Learn this skill now and try to open this watch!"
Zhao Feng impatiently shoved Tiger's watch into Gong Yi's hand, urging him to learn the skills quickly.
Zhang Shi knew that Zhao Feng was interested in Tiger Brother's mysterious beast transformation skill and wanted to find clues in the wristwatch, so he nodded to Gong Yi, signaling him to do so.
With a hint of anticipation in his eyes, Gong Yi crushed the skill card. As a purple light flashed by, Gong Yi clearly felt some knowledge being added to his mind. Then, he looked at the wristwatch that had stopped responding after its host's death. The moment his finger touched it, with a thought, the wristwatch's system space opened, and a large pile of items and supplies appeared out of thin air, forming a small mountain on the ground.
To Zhang Shi's surprise, the orb containing the skill card did not disappear; it still shimmered with a faint purple halo, looking extremely mysterious.
"As expected of a small leader, this backpack is as big as a small warehouse."
Zhao Feng excitedly crawled into the pile of supplies and examined them one by one, trying to find some clues about beast transformation. When he fought with Tiger Brother that day, the tiger that Tiger Brother transformed into had very high attributes, which made Zhao Feng suffer a little. If he could get his hands on the beast transformation ability, it would be a big boost for him.
Zhang Shi ignored him and instead took all the watches he had collected over the past few days and handed them over to Gong Yi. He then called Lao Bai and asked him to have someone sort and store the contents of the watches, and to collect some high-value resources separately for him to review.
Zhao Feng checked all of Tiger's secret stash but found no clues about the beast transformation. He guessed that the beast transformation ability was probably acquired in the form of a skill card, and then disappeared without a trace after Tiger used it.
However, during his search, Zhao Feng made an unexpected discovery. Inside an iron box, four green orbs of light were shimmering with a faint green glow, sitting quietly inside. They looked similar to the purple orb that the King of the Mountain Demons had dropped.
Zhang Shi examined each of the four green orbs one by one, but found no useful information and still did not know what the purpose of these orbs was.
"At least we can deduce that the Dragon Tiger Alliance members must have also explored that white mist secret realm, and these four orbs of light should have been dropped by four exquisite-level monsters."
Ge Dalong reasoned for a while, then pondered for a moment before adding his own explanation.
“When we eliminated the mountain demon leader, no light orb dropped. If the light orb was a probability-based drop, they probably killed more than four exquisite-level monsters. The Dragon Tiger Alliance's exploration of this secret realm is obviously much deeper than ours.”
Zhang Shi nodded and made a decision immediately.
"Didn't the Eagle Clan say that the boss only respawns every three days? We'll go again in three days and guard that boss. If the Eagle Clan dares to cause trouble, we'll beat them up again."
...
Meanwhile, at the Eagle Regiment's headquarters, in Bell's castle.
The bearded man sat in front of Bell, reporting on the day's events.
"A group of people suddenly appeared in the secret realm. When we arrived, they had already killed the boss. There were about 150 people on the other side, all of them were wearing green gear and were equipped with muskets and cannons. The leader was a man with a kitchen knife. He was very strong. We later deduced from the information that he was most likely Zhang Shi."
Upon hearing the name Zhang Shi, Bell's eyes turned icy cold. He had already suffered too many losses at Zhang Shi's hands, and this time Zhang Shi had ruined things again, which made him furious.
He stood up, walked around the table, and coldly approached the bearded man. The bearded man was about to get up when Bell pressed him back into his chair.
Bell's eyes were sharp, as if he wanted to devour the person in front of him alive.
"I've spent a lot of resources and favors to help you improve your strength, so why do you always let me down at crucial moments?"
Cold sweat beaded on the bearded man's forehead, his heart pounded, his breathing became rapid, and he stared wide-eyed at Bell, feeling even more tense than when they were fighting for their lives in the secret realm.
Seeing this, Bell shook his head dismissively and asked.
"From which direction did they enter the secret realm?"
The bearded man swallowed hard and quickly replied.
"They're heading in the same direction as us, so I suspect the clue came from the group we encountered last time."
"You didn't silence them?"
“They were all killed, not a single one left, but it seems that not all of that group came in. They must have been the ones who leaked the information.”
Bell sighed and muttered to himself.
"The Dragon Tiger Alliance and the Brotherhood have joined forces to retaliate against our various branches. They have also spread the coordinates of the castle. We are surrounded by enemies on all sides."
"Pass the word down, tell all members in different regions to keep a low profile and wait until things calm down before taking any action. As for Zhang Shi, isn't the boss going to spawn in three days? He'll most likely be back, so I'll deal with him personally."
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